The Hollywood Adaptation of Hikaru no Go
by Niabi
Summary: Hollywood's looking for its next big thing, and now its gaze has landed on Hikaru no Go. Prepare yourself. – "I'm surprised you didn't want to change the game to something else." "Well, I considered changing it to chess, but then it wouldn't make much sense when the hero goes to the local Chinatown to play the people there."


A/N: This fic proved rather tricky to write, given that I've never actually finished the series. Thankfully (or not, depending on your viewpoint), one of my friends has and was able to come up with a number of great ideas (or terrible ones, again, depending on how you look at it) that I was able to roll with. :)

Also, for anyone that may be interested, I've written a couple other fics like this in other fandoms that you can check out.

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 **The Hollywood Adaptation of Hikaru no Go**

"Glad you could make it today, Drew. Don't mind if I call you Drew, do you?" The man sitting behind a large wooden desk checked as he motioned for the younger man to take a seat in front of him.

"Oh, no, not at all," Drew quickly confirmed, settling himself in the proffered chair.

"Excellent, and you can just call me Simon," the man said. "Now, let's just move straight into it.

"You've got an interesting idea with this script, it's got a solid base, but I do have a few concerns with it," Simon said candidly, folding his hands on his desk.

"Oh, like what?" Drew asked anxiously.

"Well, for one, I'm not seeing much action in here," Simon stated, staring at Drew expectantly.

Drew stared back for a moment until he realized the executive had finished. "Oh, well, that's not really the point of the story," he explained.

"I see…" Simon hummed, sounding entirely unconvinced. "We'll have to change that. And what about romance? You make a point of mentioning this childhood friend chick has a crush on the hero, but then you never do anything with it. Why is that?"

"Well, the characters are about eleven or twelve, it would probably be awkward to force any romance," Drew reasoned nervously.

Simon immediately brightened up. "Oh, well if that's it, that's no problem! We'll just bump their ages up to like sixteen, easy fix! We'll get a wider audience anyway if it's not a kid's film."

He beamed at Drew.

"Oh… that… that makes sense," Drew agreed, shoulders slumping.

"Of course it does," Simon affirmed. "Now, tell me about this title you've got. 'Hikaru no Go?' I get that Hikaru's the hero's name and Go is the game, but it doesn't make much sense. It sounds like the hero can't or won't play the game but that's clearly not the case in the script, and frankly, the syntax is just plain awful besides. You didn't even capitalize the 'N' in 'no.'"

Drew's eyes widened as he quickly attempted to correct the other man's impression. "Oh, no, the word in the middle isn't meant to be the English word 'no,' it's actually a Japanese word. I'm not entirely sure what the exact translation would be, but I think it's generally meant to indicate possession, so it'd be something like, 'Hikaru's Go.'" He held his breath as he waited for a response.

Simon looked thoroughly unimpressed and announced, "That's still a terrible name, we're gonna have to fix it."

Drew slumped a little further into his seat.

"So," Simon pressed on, "obviously we're also changing the setting to America and the hero to a white kid —don't feel bad you didn't catch that yourself, rookie mistake— and I'm thinking we'll make the ghost an old British dude. He traveled to the Far East a couple hundred years ago or so and learned this Go game there, then died and ended up haunting a game board."

Drew looked distraught, but swallowed and managed to say, "I… see. I'm surprised you didn't want to change the game to something else," he admitted.

"Well, I considered changing it to chess, but then it wouldn't make much sense when the hero goes to the local Chinatown to play the people there," Simon confessed.

Drew gaped, then quickly closed his mouth and began carefully, "Uh, the game did originate in China, but—"

"There, see, it's perfect," Simon concluded.

"—But the characters are Japanese," Drew finished in a mumble.

"Oh, don't worry about that, it's not like anyone can tell the difference anyway. Just change their names to stuff like Chin or Chan, no problem," Simon said dismissively.

The younger man's mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally just replied in a defeated tone, "...Right."

Simon didn't seem to notice the other man's distress and continued on. "So, you've got this ghost sort of haunting the hero, right? He goes wherever the hero goes?"

"Uh, yeah, that's right," Drew confirmed, fidgeting in his seat slightly.

"Yeah, I think it would offer more interesting story opportunities if the ghost were tied to the game board instead," Simon told him.

"Er, then the hero could just walk away from the ghost and ignore him," Drew pointed out.

"Nah, that's not a problem. We'll say when the hero finds out the ghost wants to play this game, he decides to take the board to a street corner in Chinatown and put up a sign saying something like, 'Five dollars to play the ghost in the board,' or whatever."

"Um, you do realize this game board is more of a small table, right?" Drew asked with concern.

"Whatever, as long as the kid can carry it," Simon dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"I guess he could…"

"Then it's no problem," Simon repeated. "And then we add some action and danger to the story by making the hero get on the wrong side of the triad, maybe by not paying a fine to do business in their neighborhood or whatever—"

"Uh, wait, the triad?" Drew questioned, bewildered.

"Of course, we need bad guys in this story," Simon explained. "The triad's always a good pick, real menacing and mysterious. They can have guys following the hero and break into his house as a warning and stuff."

Drew could only manage a weak, "Oh," in response.

Suddenly Simon straightened up in his chair, looking eager. "Say, that gives me an idea for the title! We can call it 'Dangerous Games!' Get it? 'Cause it sounds all mysterious and tense but also alludes to the game they play!" He smiled expectantly at the younger man.

Drew looked as if he was feeling ill, but managed a wan smile and noncommittal noise in return. That was apparently good enough for the executive.

Simon continued blithely on. "Great, so while the hero's playing at his booth in Chinatown this Akira kid notices and decides to play him. Naturally he's beaten and he's shocked about it, especially since he can tell his opponent was taking it easy on him. When his parents find out a white kid beat him, they're furious and push him to train even harder."

Drew's eyes widened as he quickly roused himself to point out in a meek voice, "Umm, I think that last bit may be a stereotype."

"What? No," Simon objected, "they just expect their kid to be the best.

"So anyway, then we'll have the hero sign up to take the pro exams because he found out how much money he could make as one and he needs to stop doing business in the triad's territory." He glanced at the script in front of him, then continued, "We can say this Ogata guy told him about it. He's been watching the hero's games and realizes he's holding back against his opponents and wants to see how good the kid really is."

Drew only nodded absently, having slumped back in his chair and looking resigned.

"Now, at some point during the exams I figure the hero gets interested in the game enough to take over playing, but by that point he's picked up enough of how it works to keep their winning streak going."

"Wait, _what?_ " Drew asked, suddenly alert and sitting up again. "You mean as soon as the hero starting playing for the first time he's beating other professionals-in-training?"

"Yeah, why not?" Simon shrugged. "Between watching the ghost's games, having a natural talent of his own and maybe a few practice matches with the ghost, why shouldn't he? He's supposed to be this Akira kid's rival, right? Well, it wouldn't be much of a rivalry if they weren't on the same level!"

Drew stared incredulously at the man behind the desk.

"That's also when the ghost starts playing online, incidentally," Simon added. "The hero keeps the game board in his room and they use his laptop to play.

"Now, once the exams are about halfway through we can have that break in happen, say it rattles the hero enough to throw off his game and start losing his matches. When he's at the point where if he loses one more he won't be eligible to become a pro, he's finally able to shake it off with some encouragement from the ghost and start winning again. Really ups the stakes, gets the audience invested.

"Then after a while the final matches are announced and the hero's up against his rival, who's been training nonstop with pressure from his parents. Naturally the hero ultimately wins, but the rival learns that it's okay to lose sometimes and figures out how to take life easy from the hero."

Drew's eyes bulged, but Simon didn't notice as he finished, "They both become pros and the whole experience bonds them together as friends."

Simon leaned forward, clasped hands on his desk and an eager look on his face. "Now, for our big finale, we'll say that the rival's dad has finally agreed to play the mysterious master online, which is what the ghost's wanted the whole time, but hours before the match is scheduled to start the ghost's game board is stolen!"

Drew didn't even react to the statement, slumped in his seat and looking miserable. Simon continued anyway, undisturbed.

"The hero realizes it's the triad's doing, so he rushes to their hideout to save the ghost! When he gets there, he's confronted by that Ogata guy!"

 _"What?"_ Drew blurted, sitting up and looking horrified.

"Yeah, he was really a member of the triad all along!" Simon confirmed happily. "Probably some of the other high-up pros too, but we can work out the details of that later. Point is, he's the one that ordered the triad to grab the game board, because he's noticed that the hero always plays on it and never loses, so he wants it for himself."

Drew stared at him aghast, but Simon was oblivious.

"The hero's about to get beaten up when suddenly the police arrive in a raid! He grabs the game board and rushes out.

"With only minutes before the match to spare, he ducks into a Chinese restaurant and sets up his laptop, because he thought to bring it with him. The ghost is able to play his game and wins, but everyone that was watching it online is in hysterics because it turns out he just played a perfect game! It's what he's been striving for all this time, so he's finally able to move on. The hero congratulates him and they share a happy goodbye before the ghost fades away.

"The rival's dad is calm about the whole thing, because even though he lost he was still part of a perfect game, and that's good enough for him.

"For our final shot, we'll have something like the hero and his rival at the beach, where the hero offers to teach his rival how to surf. Shows they're both doing great and taking life easy," Simon finished, beaming.

Drew, however, hadn't managed to wipe the look of pure horror from his face for a solid three minutes. After several failed attempts, he finally got out in a faint voice, "That's… that's certainly very different from what I wrote."

"Well, yeah, your script lacked excitement," Simon said bluntly. "So look, just rewrite it and toss in a few more action scenes and some romance and we'll take another look it. It just needs a little polishing is all." He smiled encouragingly at the younger man.

Drew managed a feeble smile in return as he stood to go. "Thanks, I'll… I'll work on that."

"You do that. Can't wait to hear from you again," Simon replied as he got to his feet as well and held out his hand.

Drew shook it despondently, then left the office on shaky legs.

Simon returned to his seat and leaned back with a satisfied smile. "You know, with a little guidance that kid could go far," he murmured to himself.


End file.
